As a patriot and an admirer of local Flemish television & cinema, I see it as my duty to globally promote the great films and TV-series that are being made in my home country. Since 2010, Belgium - and Flanders in particular - has brought forward quite a few qualitative TV-series that can easily compete with the finest productions that Netflix has to offer, notably "Beau Séjour", "Tabula Rasa", "Undercover", "The Twelve" and "The Day". The expectations for "GR5" were set extremely high as well, since it has many things in common with the aforementioned series: an original plot concept, unexpected story twists and plenty of suspense/atmosphere. I really enjoyed the series, no doubt about that, but in the end it's not as impactful and staggering as I hoped it would be.
GR5 stands for "Grand Route 5", which is the name of a famous European hiking path of more than 2.000 kilometers, from the West-coast of the Netherlands all the way down to Nice in the South of France. Five years ago, 18-year-old Lisa mysteriously disappeared whilst she walked the GR5 all by herself. She was supposed to undertake the long trek with her four closest friends, but they all bailed out last minute. The guilt-ridden friends now decide to walk the distance after all, to shoot a documentary in honor of Lisa and hopefully uncover new clues that lead to her.
The long hike naturally reveals copious amounts of dark secrets from the past, between the friends mutually as well as between Lisa and her parents. Each of the friends also still battles their own personal demons, and they regularly get confronted with the fact they all hurt and disappointed Lisa tremendously. Some of the "revelations" are clever and tense, but sadly there are also the usual cliché twists and predictable liaisons. But hey, there's nothing a little bit of "suspension of disbelief" can't solve. At least the atmosphere is always stressful, and the filming locations are phenomenal. I read a lot of criticism regarding the acting performances, especially of the young cast members, but I sincerely disagree. Violet Braeckman and Boris Van Severen are multi-talented, and they receive good support from enthusiast new-arrivals Laurian Callebaut and Saïd Boumazoughe. The denouement is a risky and guaranteed to divide audiences. Personally, I didn't like it at first, but when it sank it completely, I do feel it's a very courageous and refreshing ending.
GR5 stands for "Grand Route 5", which is the name of a famous European hiking path of more than 2.000 kilometers, from the West-coast of the Netherlands all the way down to Nice in the South of France. Five years ago, 18-year-old Lisa mysteriously disappeared whilst she walked the GR5 all by herself. She was supposed to undertake the long trek with her four closest friends, but they all bailed out last minute. The guilt-ridden friends now decide to walk the distance after all, to shoot a documentary in honor of Lisa and hopefully uncover new clues that lead to her.
The long hike naturally reveals copious amounts of dark secrets from the past, between the friends mutually as well as between Lisa and her parents. Each of the friends also still battles their own personal demons, and they regularly get confronted with the fact they all hurt and disappointed Lisa tremendously. Some of the "revelations" are clever and tense, but sadly there are also the usual cliché twists and predictable liaisons. But hey, there's nothing a little bit of "suspension of disbelief" can't solve. At least the atmosphere is always stressful, and the filming locations are phenomenal. I read a lot of criticism regarding the acting performances, especially of the young cast members, but I sincerely disagree. Violet Braeckman and Boris Van Severen are multi-talented, and they receive good support from enthusiast new-arrivals Laurian Callebaut and Saïd Boumazoughe. The denouement is a risky and guaranteed to divide audiences. Personally, I didn't like it at first, but when it sank it completely, I do feel it's a very courageous and refreshing ending.